Day 4: A Whole New Sam

     Sam wakes up again, and she realizes the flaws in her friends and herself. She knows that she deserved to die, but she doesn't know how to get out of where she is. She figures that this is a repeating cycle where she'll keep waking up to February 12. So, she decides to totally change herself. Her outfit to school is really inappropriate. In the car on the way to school she says rude things to her friends, including her calling Lindsay a bitch. Lindsay would never tolerate this, especially not from a friend, so she forces Sam out of the car, making her walk to school.

    

***

     Sam is one of the most popular girls in school. Since Lindsay practically hates her, she sees girls that she could hang out with, if the time came. And well, the time came. She went to the mall with them and buys a bunch of expensive stuff, basically to show it all off. She arrives at the party and ignores Lindsay. She meets up with her boyfriend, Rob, and they almost "go all the way". 

     Being as drunk as could be, she makes it to an empty room and cries by herself. So she thinks, until Kent comes in. He leads her to a bed and stays with her until she falls asleep. As she drifts off, she remembers hearing the "Psycho" chant starting to begin.

Day 3: The First Change

     Sam has awakened for the third time on February 12th. Her mom tells her to get ready for school or she'll be late (as usual), but she tells her that she isn't feeling well and goes back to bed. When she wakes up again and decides to go to school later, she makes an effort to be nicer. She is suddenly a little bit nicer to her family, and when her mom drops her off at school she tells her she loves her. 

     When Lindsay asks if she's going to Kent's party for the third day in a row, Sam says that she isn't up to party that night. She claims that they do something every weekend, and she just wants to stay home. So, they spend the night at Ally's house. Lindsay, Elody, and Ally are all trying to convince Sam that she should stop laying around and actually have fun, but she can't when she is still thinking about dying at 12:39. As she lays around and the clock ticks to 12:40, though, she feels as though it is over and she is alive. Little does she know...

     Around 2 A.M. Ally's mom gets a call from Juliet's mom saying that she killed herself. As they all slowly drift asleep, so does the day, and Sam dreams that she is falling, falling, falling one more time.

Day 2: The First Repeat

     When Sam wakes up, she doesn't know what is happening. She knows that she was supposed to die, but she doesn't know why she still woke up. As her sister calls her name just like she did the day before, Sam realizes that Cupid's Day could be repeating. Her suspicions are confirmed as she gets a text from Lindsay talking about Cupid's Day at school. She gets ready for school as quickly as possible while still trying to sort through her confusion.
     At school everything is the same, and none of her friends seem to be going through the same thing. Throughout the day she doesn't change anything because she has no clue what is going on with her. She figures that maybe it was just a glitch. They go to the party and when they are in the car, she counts down to 12:39 A.M. This is when they died the first night. This is also when they die, at the exact same moment, the second night.

Day 1: The Day of the Accident

     Sam wakes up late on Friday, February 12, also known as Cupid's Day at Thomas Jefferson High. She runs out of the house, leaving her little sister, Izzy, and her parents, for school. Lindsay picks her up every day. After Sam's house they make a quick stop to pick up Elody and then they're off to school.
     It is a tradition of Thomas Jefferson High that on Cupid's Day there are valograms to be bought and sent out. They are roses with little messages attached. It is also a "tradition" for Sam, Lindsay, Elody, and Ally to send a valogram out each year to Juliet. The note attached reads, "Maybe next year, but probably not."
     The roses basically signify popularity. The more roses you get the more popular you are. This is one reason why they send the valogram to Juliet; they want her to feel defeated, like she doesn't belong.

                                                                          

 ***

     Sam later hears about a party Kent McFuller is hosting at his house that night. Being the popular girl she is, of course she had to be at "the place to be" when everyone else was. She and her friends get to the party, and it is packed. They get upstairs and she runs into her boyfriend. Finally she meets back up with her friends in a back room of the house. The whole room suddenly grows quiet, so quiet you could hear a pin drop. Everyone is staring at the door where Juliet stands. She walks firmly to where the four girls stand, turns to Lindsay, and says, "You're a bitch." She turns to each one directly, calling them each a bitch. Lindsay, Elody, Ally, and Sam are all drunk, and they start pushing Juliet back and forth through the crowd, spilling drinks on her, and chanting "Psycho". Like any person would, Juliet runs out of the room. 

     

***

     Lindsay, as the "designated driver", pulls out of her spot at Kent's house and starts driving down the road. It's raining and dark. It is just one of their normal drives after one of the normal parties they have gone to. And then they get in a car crash. Sam says that Lindsay yelled something along the lines of, "sit or shit or sight", and then she has a dream where she is falling, and she can't stop. 

     

Character Analysis

Samantha (Sam) Kingston- 

• thinks she can get away with anything and everything
• She was shy when she was younger, but she has become very outgoing since she met her best friend, Lindsay.
• Lindsay used to make fun of her

Lindsay Edgecombe-

• outgoing and crazy
• designated driver (even though she isn't a "good" driver)
• won't back down when being challenged

Elody-

• fun
• As Sam says, "You could never be upset when she is around." She is always happy, and tries to make other people happy in the same way.
• carefree

Juliet Sykes-

• outsider
• called by many names, including "Psycho"
• quiet and shy
• isn't associated with people in the story (doesn't really have friends)

Kent McFuller-

• He and Sam were best friends as children, but now she believes that she is too good for him.

http://www.laurenoliverbooks.com/before_i_fall.php

Summary

Sam was a normal girl. Her life was perfectly fine. In fact, she had it all: popularity, a popular boyfriend, three best friends. Her life was amazing until the accident. The accident that changed her life. Or, should I say, her last day. When Sam and her friends, Lindsay, Elody, and Ally get in a car crash everything is not what it seems. Sam wakes up, but she was supposed to die. The catch: it is the same day. She must journey through the day of her death seven times in a row. She realizes that all she has to do to get out, is to fix everything that was wrong with that night. And she finds out that it isn't as easy as it looks.